We'd arranged to meet a woman in her village in China's central Hunan Province and to then travel with her by train to Beijing, filming as we went.

But we never did get to meet our interviewee.

The story we ended up with, however, reveals more about the exercise of power in China than any interview ever could.

It is one that involves violence, intimidation and a forced confession - my first in my long reporting experience in China - in which I found myself apologising for "behaviour causing a bad impact" and for trying to conduct an "illegal interview".

Image captionThugs, apparently sanctioned by the authorities, attacked us

Yang Linghua was planning to take the train to Beijing because she is what's known in China as a "petitioner".

Every year, many tens of thousands of Chinese people - denied the possibility of obtaining any justice through the local Communist Party run courts - head to the capital, taking their grievances to the "State Bureau of Letters and Calls".

Corruption cases, land-grabs, local government malfeasance, medical negligence, police brutality, unfair dismissal - all are documented in the bundles of papers - the petitions - they carry with them.

The system is also Communist Party run, of course, and the chances of success are tiny.

But for many, it's the only chance they've got, and they often continue to petition, in vain, for years.

Allegations of brutality

The BBC interviewed her sister, Yang Qinghua, three years ago on a petitioning trip to Beijing.

The women allege that their land was stolen from them and their father, in the ensuing dispute, was beaten so badly he eventually died.

But there's a particular reason Ms Yang was trying to reach Beijing this week.

On Sunday, China begins its annual parliamentary session, The National People's Congress (NPC).

Image copyrightEPAImage captionThe National People's Congress is held, like the Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (depicted), in Beijing's Great Hall of the People

The event is like a magnet for petitioners who hope to use the grand occasion to promote their cause.

Beijing, though, has other ideas.

It would rather keep this ragged army of the dispossessed away from its carefully choreographed piece of political theatre and so provincial officials the length and breadth of the land, are tasked with stopping petitioners making the journey.

We knew that Ms Yang's sister and mother had already been placed under unofficial house arrest.

But as she herself had never been to Beijing to petition before, she felt she would be free from suspicion and, at the very least, able to board a train.

She was wrong.

As soon as we arrived in Yang Linghua's village it was clear they were expecting us.

The road to her house was blocked by a large group of people and, within a few minutes, they'd assaulted us and smashed all of our cameras.

Image captionOur equipment was smashed - Ms Yang says her father received far worse when he objected to land theft

While such violence can be part of the risk faced by foreign reporters in China, what happened next is more unusual.

After we left the village, we were chased down and had our car surrounded by a group of about 20 thugs.

They were then joined by some uniformed police officers and two officials from the local foreign affairs office, and under the threat of further violence, we were made to delete some of our footage and forced to sign the confession.

It was a very one-sided negotiation, but it at least gave us a way out - a luxury denied to the petitioners who find themselves on the receiving end of similar intimidation and abuse.

A video sent to us by Yang Linghua's sister shows her being detained by some of the same people who threatened us.

Warnings not to travel

In the course of researching this story we spoke to one woman, now in her seventies, who has been petitioning since 1988 for a longer prison sentence for her husband's murderer.

She told us that every year during the National People's Congress she is put under house arrest for 10 days.

A man we contacted, petitioning over the abduction of his son, had been warned not to travel this week.

He went ahead and booked his tickets anyway but was prevented from boarding the train in Guangdong Province.

Even for those who do make it to Beijing, the threat of being caught remains.

Outside the petitioning office this week, hundreds of "interceptors" have gathered, the squads of goons sent from each province to search out and cajole or coerce their petitioners to return home.

Image copyrightREUTERSImage captionOfficial and volunteer security officers are everywhere during the Congress

Of course, many petitioners do still make it and are able to lodge their claims, particularly first-timers who are not yet known to the system.

But the irony is, the harder China works to stem the flow during its national parliament, the more incentive there is for people to come.

Most petitioners are not so naive as to believe they'll be able to get anywhere near the senior officials attending the parliament.

But the desperation of their own provincial governments to catch them gives those who make it to Beijing a certain leverage.

Ignored all year round, often by the same officials they're petitioning against, they suddenly find themselves on the receiving end of offers to negotiate.

One petitioner showed us the text message exchanges she has had with the interceptors trying to track her down, with one even offering to take her on holiday. Anything to get her out of Beijing.

We have heard nothing from Yang Linghua or her family since they disappeared.

We have asked government officials in Beijing whether they can provide an assurance that they are safe and well.

Meanwhile, on the eve of China's parliamentary gathering, many of its citizens - often those, it could be argued, who are most in need of parliamentary representation - face similar abuse.

And despite having signed that confession I make no apology for trying to interview them.

Keep these in mind as you contemplate the direction of the American government over the past 50 years and especially since the Obama election.

The Goals of Communism

(as read into the congressional record January 10, 1963, from "The Naked Communist" by Cleon Skousen)

1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.